More Wooden Products Used in the Cigarmaking Process: Drying Boxes

Another interesting wooden object I've recently come across is this cigar drying box. After cigars were hand-rolled or removed from their mold, they were once placed in these primitive objects and left to dry.

The reason I call them "primitive" is because of their design; while they might make you think of the functionality of flat files, the resemblance between the two objects is visual only. At first I thought these would be perfect for storing hand tools, saw blades et cetera, but these are not pull-out drawers; there are no runners at all. The pull-outs are simply individual trays that rest on the ones below them, and the exterior is a mere four-sided box (no back) to keep dust off the cigars.

In other words, if you pull a tray out of the middle, the ones above come out with it or drop down to take the removed tray's place. This is presumably because the cigarmaking workflow meant the piece was loaded and unloaded just once per batch, obviating the need (and added cost) of constructing proper drawers.

If you were to build one of these to hold hand tools, so that the trays served as proper drawers, how would you design it? My first thought was you could construct the drawer bottoms out of masonite, make them slightly wider than the drawers themselves, and have the overlap slide into kerfs cut into the interiors of either side. But I suspect drawers this wide would start to sag in the middle, depending on how heavy the tools were, so the things would need to be made narrower (killing some of their visual appeal). Any ideas?

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The FIFO logic function of the cigar dryer is clever, but not relevant to tool storage. I think a stack that tall of even well planed and polished hardwood would stick too much under the weight of anything other than cigars, so the drawers would have to be seperated. (Random access for equal cost is the value of drawers.)
I think to build casework that compact, with shop-use levels of function in the drawers, you either need to overbuild it a large amount, not put anything in it, or allow fairly generous tolerances. blend those three approaches. The standard issue mechanic's steel tool chest has a lot to recommend it, though it's obviously short on history.
Good to ponder though. I do need a new tool chest myself.

I think you'd actually be fine with simple rails on either side of the drawer. Rather than using the drawer bottom, though, I'd shape the sides of the drawers like an upside down "L" and put a lip for them to slide in/out on the inside of the cabinet. Give the drawers a wider (but not taller) face to cover the rails when the drawers are closed (look at any drawers in your kitchen/bath/etc. if this isn't clear), and you're all set. As long as you're not using pine (the previous article mentioned maple as the source for the rolling racks) you should be fine as long as you're not planning on storing lead ingots in the drawers.

There already appears to be a beam across the center of the drawer. You could put thick back on the box. Run rods through the center of each drawer attached to the knob. Have them connect to a dremel easy lock type mechanism. Push and turn the knob 90 degrees, drawer is free. As long as you dont pull it all the way out the other drawers wont drop. You could put thing sheets of PTFE between the drawers to reduce friction.

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